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SnapZ Pro: Snapz Pro X allows you to effortlessly record anything on your screen, saving it as a QuickTime movie or screenshot that can be emailed, put up on the web, or passed around however you want. This is the tool used in the World Language Lab to create training materials for the World Language faculty. That said, I am increasingly drawn to ScreenFlow. It’s more spendy, but well worth it. May have to switch, though we all love Ambrosia. iShowU is another screen capture app.
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YouTube: A popular video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in mid February 2005 by three former PayPal employees and was acquired in November 2006 by Google, Inc. Other similar services include TeacherTube, Google Video, and Yahoo! Video.
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Wiki: A collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work”. Wikipedia is one of the best-known wikis and is the source for many of the definitions in this glossary. A defining characteristic of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated. Generally, there is no review before modifications are accepted. Many wikis are open to the general public without the need to register any user account. Sometimes session log-in is requested to acquire a “wiki-signature” cookie for autosigning edits. Many edits, however, can be made in real-time, and appear almost instantaneously online. This can lead to abuse of the system, but it can also lead to up-to-the minute information contributed by those who take ownership over a particular piece of knowledge. Wikis can be powerful tools for collaborating on projects and sharing information.
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Vodcast: Video podcast (sometimes shortened to vidcast or vodcast) is a term used for the online delivery of video on demand video clip content via Atom or RSS enclosures. The term refers to the distribution of video where the RSS feed is used as a non-linear TV channel to which consumers can subscribe using a PC, TV, set-top box, media center or mobile multimedia device. One popular aggregator of vodcasts and other online video content is miro.
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Visual Thesaurus: The Visual Thesaurus is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus with an innovative user interface that helps students to understand language in an exciting new ways. Students can type a word in English, French, German, or Spanish and see related word families visually represented on a mindmap, much akin in someways to software like Inspiration. The two applications might be combined in some interesting ways.
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UCLS WebCal: The UCLS WebCal is a resource calendaring system designed to facilitate the check-in and check-out of WLL equipment and the scheduling of the lab for use by teachers, language classes, and individual students. WLD faculty can only reserve the lab by visiting this online calendar. An iCal feed is available, which will allow iCal users to view the lab’s ever-changing schedule on their own computers.
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Several times a week, prospective parents and curious onlookers pop their heads in the lab to see what is going on. It’s probably hard to tell, so I thought I’d write a quick post explaining the different areas of the lab and a general outline of activities.
As this diagram shows, there are four areas in the lab: a Welcome Area, an Instructional Area, a Project Area, and a Training Area.
In the WELCOME AREA, we have a Plasma TV for viewing movies in a cozy carpeted area. This is where lower school classes come to play games or watch videos and where the Classic Film Club sits during their screenings. Above the plasma TV, we have three displays that point to the hallway, which allow us to share with passersby some of what we are doing in the lab.
In the INSTRUCTIONAL AREA, we have one Teacher Station and 24 Student Stations. These are all Intel iMacs outfitted with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, Apple’s pages, numbers, keynote, iTunes, GarageBand, iMovie, and iChat, and other goodies like Comic Life, Photo Booth, and Skype. We also have an overhead projector and speakers for showing movies and presentations to the class.
The INSTRUCTIONAL AREA features a unique piece of software called DiLL (DIgital Language Lab). This is what teachers use the most when they bring their classes to the lab. DiLL allows teachers to assign listening and speaking exercises to students. Students can listen to audio prompts and hold down the space bar (much like a walkie-talkie) to record their responses in the target language. These responses are then saved to a server and made accessible online, so that teachers can assess comprehension, pronunciation, and speaking skills. See this post for audio clips of what students hear when they are working in DiLL.
In the PROJECT AREA, students and teachers work in groups on multimedia projects. This area is outfitted with 6 22″ TV displays and 6 mac Minis, mounted on the back of each collaborative workstation. Headphones allow up to six students per station to listen to the their projects without disrupting others. All six of the computers are running the new Leopard operating system (Mac OS 10.5), Adobe CS3 products (i.e. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash), Apple iWork, and iLife software.
Finally, in the TRAINING AREA, we have two G5’s running Final Cut Pro for professional video editing. There are no language classes using this software, but the Filmmaking Club has taken advantage of it as well as iMovie and iStopMotion for some of their projects this year. Next to the G5’s are four more iMacs for teacher use. Teachers can scan materials and digitize cassette and video tapes. This is where I usually work with the teachers to train them on new software and work with them to plan new and exciting projects for the classroom.
All told, there are 43 desktop computers and 30 mobile laptops available to the World Language faculty to use with their classes.
With an average of thirty reservations per week, the lab is a busy place! Mix in parent-teacher conferences, independent study and testing, tutoring, and project-planning and you start to get the idea. There are usually two or more activities going on in the lab at any given time. It’s great fun and very stimulating to see so many students and teachers taking advantage of the space and these powerful tools.
Just to put the lab in perspective, many colleges do not have this kind of equipment and space at their disposal specifically devoted to language learning. We are truly lucky and deeply indebted to the many members of the Lab Community who have made and continue to make this resource a reality.
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UCLS Webmail: UCLS Webmail is a service available to students and faculty at University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. Since many students do not frequently access their school email until pressed upon to do so, language learning activities that require the use of this technology will serve a dual purpose: to strengthen their language skills and their connection to official school communication. The username and password used for UCLS email are required to sign on to the computers and the DiLL software in the World Language Lab (WLL). Third, fourth, and fifth graders who have not yet received an email account are given an alternate way to sign on to WLL computers.
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Text Messaging: Text messaging, or texting is the common term for the sending of “short” (160 characters or fewer) text messages, using the Short Message Service (SMS), from mobile phones. It is available on most digital mobile phones and some personal digital assistants with onboard wireless telecommunications. The individual messages which are sent are called text messages, and more colloquially SMSes, texts, or even txts (in “text speak”). The most common application of the service is person-to-person messaging, but text messages are also often used to interact with automated systems, such as ordering products and services for mobile phones, or participating in contests like Eurovision.
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Skype: The main difference between Skype and VoIP clients is that Skype operates on a peer-to-peer model, rather than the more traditional server-client model. The Skype user directory is entirely decentralized and distributed among the nodes in the network, which means the network can scale very easily to large sizes (currently about 220 million users) without a complex and costly centralized infrastructure. Because Skype is so easily available to computer users in other countries, language learners can easily communicate with people around the world in their target language. Skype calls can also be recorded using applications like eCamm’s Call Recorder.
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